Since my last to you, I have none of your favors, although I have within a week past received three letters from my Brother with your mark upon them. The last of these came to hand this day & was written while my brother was upon his journey to Silesia.1 The details of his travels are very interesting.

The most remarkable domestic occurrence, since the date of my last, is the discovery of a pretty extensive combination among the Slaves in the Southern States, for the purpose of a practical illustration of those seducing theories—the equal rights of all men, which they have been accustomed to hear discussed, with great zeal, for several years past, at the tables of their owners. The perpetration of the plot was alone prevented by an intervention, almost supernatural. A black cloud arose in the afternoon, preceeding the night when the general Massacre of the white inhabitants of Richmond & its vicinity, was to have taken place; & a flood of rain, which soon burst from it, so deluged the Country, as to render the execution, for that night, impracticable; the sudden overflow of a small stream, cut off the communication of some of the principal conspirators, from the place of rendezvous; in the mean time, the plot was revealed or detected, and many of the principal actors were seized & sent to prison— They have been tried in a summary manner & publicly executed; the particulars, which transpired at their trials, were of a nature to shock insensibility itself— The enterprize was boldly conceived—arms were provided & the whole Country might have been, at this moment, a scene of carnage & desolation, but for the providential discovery— An insurrection of a similar nature has broken out in the neighborhood of Charleston S.C. and though less formidable than at first represented, it forebodes much danger. Even in North Carolina & Maryland apprehensions are entertained. It is said, upon what authority I have been unable to discover, that frenchmen were the secret instigators of the Virginia revolt, and in the examinations of some of the detected blacks it appeared in evidence, that the white french inhabitants were to have been spared in the general massacre. The leader of the whole band, has hitherto escaped 408 although a considerable reward has been offered by proclamation for his head—2 It is hoped that this warning to the Southern proprietors, will produce a favorable effect upon their conduct & alter the style of their inflamatory language on subjects of government— But if they should prefer paying their debts, by having their throats cut, they will yet persevere in despite of all this.

The City of Philadelphia yet continues more healthy than any of the neighboring Cities, although New York has been in a great degree exempt from infectious disorders, this season— All our friends are in health.

I can offer nothing but conjecture upon the subject of our Elections— The Democrats are very strong, both in skill, intrigue & numbers— The failure, (as we hear) of the negociation with France, will I apprehend do some harm to the federal cause.

I am, with esteem, your friend

I have your favor of the 26th: ulto: with an enclosure; with what I paid for the servant’s trunk & the cask of wine, the account is just balanced. I have not been called on for any more charges & imagine none are due— The wine I suppose to be a present from Our Consul Mr: Willis.1

I am extremely grieved at the disaster, which has befallen my Cousin Boylston, & which, according to your prediction, may be followed by such fatal consequences. I felt an unusual degree of friendship for him, independent of any relationship, & I believe none 409 of his family would more sincerely mourn his untimely loss, than I should. “When sorrows come,” (says the poet) “they come not single spies, but by battalion’s.”2 How often do we find occasion for the application of this remark! The experience of our immediate family connections is replete with such instances.

Within ten days past I have received five letters from my brother at Berlin—one of which I sent you yesterday—tomorrow I will forward another; the others are upon private business.3 He has now attoned in some degree for former omission’s.

I send the Aurora again because of its contents— The use which they will try to make of that letter, will be to excite animosity on the side of the pinckney’s. If it be true that Mr: Thomas Pinckney did call on the President with Mr: Rutledge and received the explanation which the Aurora refers to—he had no occasion to have written exactly such a letter as he has—4 I have read so many palpable lies in the Aurora, about the President’s letters & conversations, that I ought always to distrust what I read; but some times a contradiction from good authority would have a good effect—

Your Boston writers have borne the palm in the Electioneering warfare— Our printers will do as they like, and although they have never refused to insert any thing original from me, they will not make the selections from other prints, which I should— I have written nothing of a formal series, of late, unless the pieces published in the Gaz. of the US. under the signature of Mutius Scavola, be entitled to this denomination. They seem to have attracted no notice at all—not even from my own family, & therefore I conclude they were not intrinsically entitled to any; & yet, a few gross errors of the press excepted, I thought pretty well of them myself. They came out in July or August & the provocation which produced them was a piece of British insolence & bull-ism, that appeared in the Aurora—

I thank William for his letter & the newspapers, which I shall read at leisure—5

With great affection I am / Your Son